A routine visit by a patient to a doctor typically involves numerous medical office staff members and a range of procedures and documentation. Management of the myriad tasks and records involved in such visits has long been an involved and difficult process. Doctors have traditionally relied upon staff members to retrieve patient documentation and to obtain x-rays or other information from other offices or labs. Likewise, a doctor's request for lab work, surgery, or other procedures is typically coordinated by staff members with the doctor relying on verbal or written communication with staff throughout and following patient visits.
The delay and potential for error inherent in such conventional verbal and written communications often results in unnecessary delay for patients and care providers alike. Doctors typically review patient profile documentation before an examination. More timely notice of a patient's medical profile in preparation for a patient's visit could increase patient flow-through. Additionally, paper records inevitably become incomplete or missing as portions or all of a file is moved between the front desk, examination room, labs, and offsite provider offices. Paper systems are further deficient in that they require multiple copies for simultaneous viewing of records.
With a paper system or a closed office network, Physicians may not be able to access vital patient information when they are out of the office. Likewise, prior systems typically provided limited file export capabilities, often requiring accessing and printing from a number of separate software applications or databases. File export is necessary, for example, when a patient requests a copy of all or portions of her file or when a referral specialist requests a complete history for a patient's condition.
Paper systems are inherently prone to many types of errors. Omitted or inaccurate medication records could be potentially life threatening. For example, an omitted medication on a chart may lead to a harmful drug interaction. Additionally, omitted or inaccurate billing records may lead to lost charges for services. For example, a physician may perform a number of billable services and forget to record each service on a paper chart ticket.
There has, therefore, been a movement in the industry towards electronic records keeping and office management and real time interaction with staff and records databases. Most so called electronic management systems require proprietary client software installed on individual work stations making remote access from home or offsite labs difficult. Typically, efficient office management requires a number of separate proprietary systems, creating redundancy and incompatibility issues. There is, therefore, a need for an efficient, integrated, web-based office management product providing improved user communications and user friendly, secure access from any internet ready workstation.